January 13, 2023 · current events
When Barbara Walters died at the end of December, I saw a tweet noting that she and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were born the same year (1929) and that is how much (potential) life was stolen from him. It was a stark reminder for me. This year marks 55 years since Dr. King was assassinated. How to best address Martin Luther King Day in the classroom is a constant question for us. We’ve written about it before and always wonder what the best approach is. Doing or saying nothing doesn’t feel right, but neither does a quick one day activity. You can read about our approach last year here: MLK Day 2022: Reminders & Ideas and our approach with 5th graders here: Observing MLK Day in the Classroom . Teaching the History of Voting Rights in the USA is also always a timely reminder and important lesson. There are so many book lists out there already, so we will just share a few books for read
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May 11, 2017 · curriculum
Some of the beautiful portraits our students created (and delivered) to SOME seniors! Service Learning In 5th grade we do a service learning experience that aims to honor what is developmentally appropriate for 5th graders and prioritize maintaining the utmost dignity of the others. Service Learning is such a complicated realm, as we work to ensure that we don't "otherize" or create complicated (and potentially problematic) narratives about what 'help' is and who helps whom. Our SOME (So Others Might Eat) project is one of our favorite service learning experiences, because we think it does work towards our ideals of what service learning should look like: meaningful to all, authentic, and a learning experience! The Process! Our project starts when 5th grade goes to study portraiture at the National Portrait Gallery - learning about how portraits are about more than just a face, but the
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October 5, 2016 · curriculum
Protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline! Service learning has been really tricky for us in the past as it can feel contrived or otherizing or at the very least, feel less than meaningful for our students. Below are two ideas we have to incorporate thoughtful, beneficial service learning into our new school year. We are very excited about some programs that are in the Dominican Republic, specifically, Alta Gracia , which would go really well with our Economics unit. Alta Gracia pays their workers a living wage and says that, " In addition to this salary, we respect our employees’ rights as workers and as human beings, including the right to a safe and healthy workplace, the right to be treated with dignity and respect on the job, and the right to form a union." We met with Alta Gracia employees and multiple union leaders and workers this summer, and feel like this could be a great
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August 26, 2016 · curriculum
We were so excited to visit the Alta Gracia factory and meet with employees! And we're back to continue our reflection on preparing for the upcoming school year. In this post we want to share with you some of the things we want to change for the upcoming school year. Change is constant, and we are excited to take it on, even as it brings some discomfort (and often a little extra work) into our lives. As Emily Style says, "Half the curriculum walks in the room with the students on the first day.." Which to us means that this list will most definitely get a whole lot longer and intricate as the year progresses! We are going to try… Mini-home groups: We already made a push to have affinity groups at our school. We now run an affinity group for 3-5th graders that we feel has brought so much life and love to our students of color. We love it so much that we have been wondering how to bring
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